New England Views: The Photography of Baldwin Coolidge, 1845-1928

Susan Fletcher Witzell, Jane A. McLaughlin & Mary Lou Smith

ISBN 10: 0961137452 / ISBN 13: 9780961137458

Published by Woods Hole, MA: Woods Hole Historical Collection, 1998

About this Item

Inscribed by author. Dark blue-black cloth over boards, blind stamped title on front cover, red letters on spine. Bright, clean covers and spine; tightly bound; inscribed on title page 'To Ginny - | Who shared Woods Hole | with us years ago as our "first daughter". | Much love always, | Mary Lou'; also owner's gift inscription on title page; crisp, clean interior. DJ is lightly scuffed; several pin holes; small chips at spine head; small stain on back cover. Oblong 4to, 181 pp; index, biblio. Seller Inventory # M00102

Bibliographic Details

Title: New England Views: The Photography of ...

Publisher: Woods Hole, MA: Woods Hole Historical Collection

Publication Date: 1998

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Near Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

189 duotone images selected from the plates of the noted Boston photographer Baldwin Coolidge whose photographs spanned the period of the 1880s to 1917. Coolidge took many pictures in southeastern Massachusetts and the offshore islands, including Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands. He also did work along the Merrimack River valley, on the North Shore, in New Hampshire and Maine and photographed city scenes and maritime views of Boston. Published with the cooperation of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA). New England Views has won First Prize for books in the 1999 Design Competition of the American Association of Museums.

Review:

Reproducing about 200 prints made from large-format glass-plate negatives, "New England Views" is the first publication devoted solely to Baldwin Coolidge's photography. The reproduction of the photographs is superb, with careful duotone printing achieving a close reproduction of the actual tones of the 19th century prints....This writer's favorite shot is of the walking-beam paddlewheel steamer "Martha's Vineyard". She lies at the Cottage City steamer pier with two catboats astern of her. Her flags are barely aflutter and Nantucket Sound looks charmingly placid. An east-bound schooner crosses the Sound. The scene is bucolic. It is, however, disrupted by the distant but sinister presence of the famous waterspout of 1896...."New England Views" had its genesis in work at the Woods Hole Historical Collection to conserve that museum's photographic holdings through digitization....The book that grew from those conservation efforts is a beauty. -- David Dandridge, Vineyard Gazette, December 18, 1998

Thank goodness someone had the foresight to put aside so many of Baldwin Coolidge's glass photographic negatives. As a commercial photographer and staff photographer for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for 30 years during the late 19th and early 20th century, Coolidge shot thousands of photographs of New England life, concentrating on the Boston area but also taking numerous photos of Woods Hole, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. These photos have been lovingly gathered and reprinted in "New England Views". The 189 prints are intriguing and the photo captions so thorough one wonders at the enterprise of the book's editors in searching out all the relevant information. Suffice it to say their efforts were worth it. -- Cape Cod Times, December 20, 1998